Libyan revolutionary forces fired rockets into the western half of Muammar Gaddafi's hometown Tuesday even as hundreds of residents streamed out of the city to flee the fighting. Anti-Gaddafi fighters launched their offensive against Sirte last month, but have faced fierce resistance from regime loyalists holed up inside. The battle for the city has become the focal point of efforts to rout die-hard supporters of Gaddafi, whose whereabouts remains unknown more than six weeks since Tripoli's fall. Nouri Al-Naari, a doctor at a field hospital in a mosque on Sirte's outskirts, said that two anti-Gaddafi fighters had been killed and 28 wounded in intense battles in Sirte on Monday. Amid concerns about a humanitarian crisis, the International Committee of the Red Cross said its staff had crossed the front lines and delivered urgently needed oxygen and other medical supplies to the hospital in Sirte Monday. They also evacuated a Dutch nurse who had been working there. Aid workers also are providing food and other items for thousands of people who have fled Sirte. Libya's de facto Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said Monday that Sirte, some 400 km southeast of Tripoli on the Mediterranean coast, must be seized before the transitional leadership can declare victory and set a timeline in motion for elections for a formal government. Fighting also continues in the town of Bani Walid and in pockets in the south, but Jibril said Sirte's capture would mean the main entry ports to the country were secure. He and the head of the NTC, Mustafa Abdul-Jalil have pledged not to take part in any future government.
